I am on the path, however not yet advanced. Any opinions or insights I share are meant entirely for discussion purposes and in cases where people might find them beneficial in whatever way. Since I am not advanced on the Path, I cannot guarantee that what I say will always necessarily be 100% true or in line with the Dhamma. However, having had an extremely interesting life with a wide variety of different (many of them deep) experiences, I hope that anything I share will be of use, provide food for thought, and inspire interesting and beneficial discussions.

I am on the path, however not yet advanced. Any opinions or insights I share are meant entirely for discussion purposes and in cases where people might find them beneficial in whatever way. Since I am not advanced on the Path, I cannot guarantee that what I say will always necessarily be 100% true or in line with the Dhamma. However, having had an extremely interesting life with a wide variety of different (many of them deep) experiences, I hope that anything I share will be of use, provide food for thought, and inspire interesting and beneficial discussions.

He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: 'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' (Jhana Sutta - Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation)

Modus.Ponens, I'm sure you don't mean to be insensitive, but perhaps this person is without a home. I know that when you are without proper shelter it can be extremely difficult to find a place to clean oneself. it's something we can be mindful of.

Rain soddens what is covered up,It does not sodden what is open.Therefore uncover what is coveredThat the rain will not sodden it. Ud 5.5

rowboat, someone in the chatroom voted less than once a week just for the fun of it and i was responding to that vote. It was a private joke.

EDIT: i entered rowyourboat's name instead of rowboat's.

He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: 'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' (Jhana Sutta - Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation)

I suppose I should change my username, because I'm not rowyourboat, but rowboat, and I keep getting mistaken for him/her. (I live in a small village on the ocean, therefore i am rowboat, my favourite means of transportation.)

Rain soddens what is covered up,It does not sodden what is open.Therefore uncover what is coveredThat the rain will not sodden it. Ud 5.5

... a certain man said to Nandaka, the chief minister of the Licchavis, "It is now time for your bath, sir.""Enough, I say, with this external bath. I am satisfied with this internal bath: confidence in the Blessed One."

A bhikkhu should be clean, neat, and unostentatious in his appearance, as a reflection of the qualities he is trying to develop in his mind.

Bathing. Although Pc 57 forbids a bhikkhu from bathing at intervals of less than half a month, we noted in the discussion of that rule that it was apparently intended as a temporary disciplinary measure for bhikkhus who had inconvenienced King Bimbisāra when he wanted to bathe in the hot spring near Rājagaha. When the Buddha later added exemptions to the rule, he so relaxed it that he virtually rescinded it. In addition, Mv.V.13 explicitly rescinds the rule in all parts of the world outside of the central Ganges Valley.

In the time of the Buddha, bathing was done in a river, a bathing tank, a sauna, or a showering place. Instead of soap, people used an unscented powder called chunam, which was kneaded with water into a dough-like paste. Bhikkhus are explicitly allowed to use powdered dung, clay, or dye-dregs; according to the Commentary, ordinary chunam would come under "dye-dregs." A bhikkhu with an itching rash, a small boil, or a running sore, or whose body smells bad (in the words of the Commentary, "with a body odor like that of a horse") may use scented fragrant powders. At present, the Great Standards would allow soap under the allowance for clay, and scented soaps or deodorants under the allowance for scented powders for a bhikkhu with a strong body odor. Otherwise, the use of scents is listed among the bad habits prohibited by Cv.V.36 (see Chapter 10).

The etiquette when bathing in a group is that a junior bhikkhu should not bathe in front of an elder bhikkhu or, if bathing in a river, upstream from him. If one is able and willing (and, of course, if the elder bhikkhus are amenable), one may look after the needs of elder bhikkhus while they are bathing. An example of this, given in the Commentary, is scrubbing them. When scrubbing another or oneself, one may use one's hand or a rope or pad of cloth. Sponges, which apparently were not known in the time of the Buddha, would probably be included under pad of cloth.

One is not allowed to rub one's body with a wooden hand, a string of red powder beads — according to the Commentary, this means bathing powder mixed with powdered stone (cinnabar?) and formed into beads — or with a scrubber incised with a "dragon-teeth" pattern. A bhikkhu who is ill, however, may use an unincised scrubber. In the time of the Buddha, young men while bathing would rub their bodies against trees, against walls, against one another (this was called a "fully immersed massage"), or against rubbing posts (aṭṭhāna, which according to the Commentary, took their name from their being incised with a pattern like a chess board (aṭṭhapada)) in order to toughen their muscles. Bhikkhus are explicitly forbidden from rubbing their bodies in any of these ways. However, they are allowed to massage themselves and one another with their hands.

In another context — cleaning one's feet before entering a dwelling — one is allowed to step on foot wipers made of stone, stone fragments, and pumice ("sea-foam stone"), so it would seem reasonable that the use of pumice or other stones to scrub off stubborn dirt while bathing would also be permitted.

When leaving the water after bathing, one should make way for those entering the water.

One is allowed to dry oneself with a water wiper — which the non-offense clauses for Pc 86 say may be made of ivory, horn, or wood — or with a piece of cloth.

Living in the sub-tropics, the norm is twice a day. Certainly twice a day for those attending a Gym.

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

pilgrim wrote:It might be interesting to see the demographics of bathing. I suspect those living in tropical climes would bathe at least once a day while those experiencing winter now would bathe less often.

Around these parts which is below 41 degrees South, the vast majority of people bathe once a day.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I'm friends with a lot of ferals, and have become a little feral myself. I bathe once a week, or whenever I become smelly or excessively itchy. One of my best friends has not bathed in 7 months, he doesn't smell so bad. I don't understand why people feel they need to shower more. Maybe they get stinky easily, or just enjoy the sensation.

Is this one of those threads designed to prove a point, like the Sex Frequency thread?

Then, saturated with joy, you will put an end to suffering and stress.SN 9.11

One of the most widely held myths of modern society is that we humans need to shower or take a bath each day (or even more often than that) for good health.

In modern industrial society today we shower and otherwise bathe for mostly social and aesthetic reasons rather than for those of health. The general rule of thumb is: "If you can stand it socially, you can probably get by hygienically." But in saying this, it must be stressed that bathing is necessary as one can get skin diseases and worse from not bathing at all. But the "one per day" frequency of showers and baths is somewhat unnecessary.

Our great grandparents, our grandparents, and perhaps even our parents probably showered or bathed less often than we do now. It was not so many decades ago when entire families routinely bathed in a common bathtub once a week. Families were larger then, so if you were fifth or sixth in the tub - you can imagine.

Standards in the degree of tolerance of body smells emanating from ourselves and others were different then compared to those of today. The advent of indoor plumbing boosted rates of bathing. It also boosted standards of laundry cleanliness. The one (or more) bathroom(s) and the one washing machine per home made cleanliness convenient to average people for the first time in human history. Cultural expectations shifted, especially over the last century or so to demand a cleaner population - ourselves and others.

Yet still today, nations and cultures differ as to the expectations of bathing. Many factors impinge on this behavior: Amount of readily available water (desert countries often have water restrictions), availability of bathing facilities (much of the world does not have easy access to a private bathroom), occupation (physical labour versus office work), lifestyle (the more athletic, the more showers), season of the year (more bathing in hot summer weather than in cold winter weather), age (teenagers bathe most frequently, the elderly least frequently), religion, other cultural beliefs, etc.

Who are the cleanest people on Earth?

The title of "cleanest people on earth" may go to the Australians. However, research is difficult to come by on this point.

According to an October 2006 survey of 400 people conducted by EnergyAustralia (the supplier of electricity for much of Australia), every Australian takes at least one shower each day. Specifically, "62 per cent of people showered once a day, 29 per cent twice a day, and nine per cent showered three times a day".

These figures imply that no Australian goes more than a day without a shower. This is arguably the highest rate of national showering anywhere in the world and qualifies Australians as the cleanest people on Earth. The survey also found that women take slightly longer showers than men (but only less than a minute more) and teenagers take longer showers than people over age 40. Any arguments?

Stephen Juan, Ph.D. is an anthropologist at the University of Sydney. Email your Odd Body questions to s.juan@edfac.usyd.edu.au

with mettaChris

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---